Your Roots Are Showing

Product Details

Lizzie Buckley has a life many women dream of - a gorgeous husband, a beautiful home and darling (when they're not fighting) three-year-old twins. But ever since the birth of her children, she's had a fantasy about locking herself in her bedroom for twenty-four hours with a good book and a box of chocolates.

Unfortunately, her husband James doesn't understand her feelings. And when Lizzie unburdens herself in a flaming email to her sister Janie, then hits send at the wrong moment and accidentally shoots it off to James instead, her fairytale life gets a big dose of reality. With the word "divorce" ringing in her ears, Lizzie finds herself moving out and embarking on a totally different life - working hard to reinvent herself as a runner, a gardener, and a writer of children's books.

But despite transforming her body, her neglected career, and her libido (courtesy of the local landscape gardener), Lizzie can't get over her soon-to-be ex. As Lizzie discovers, sometimes the fairytale ending is just the beginning of the real story.

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Reviews

Rated 3 out of
5 by
Christine_Bode from
Your Roots Are Showing by Elise ChidleyElise Chidley’s debut novel, Your Roots Are Showing, is a fine example of the contemporary, intelligent chick/mom lit novel that I’m coming to expect from 5 Spot Publishing, who are fast becoming one of my favourite publishers. Connecticut based Elise, who is married with three children, has written a very accessible and sometimes touching, romantic story. Your Roots Are Showing is about the break-up of Lizzie Buckley’s ostensibly seamless marriage with her handsome, wealthy, architect husband, James, in Gloucestershire, England, and the subsequent journey she embarks upon to win him back. My favourite character in this book was neither Lizzie nor James, and certainly not her annoying, brittle and exercise-obsessed best friend Tessa (whom I immediately envisioned as the Embeth Davidtz character, Amy, in the HBO series, In Treatment); it was Lizzie’s neighbour, and potential new love interest, Bruno Ardis, who seemed to have the most going on beneath the surface, and late in the novel we find out that is definitely the truth. For the record, I wouldn’t blame the guy one bit for making the choice he makes in the end. Lizzie, still in love with her husband, but angry, frustrated and frightened to find herself moving her three-year-old twins, Ellie and Alex, out of her husband’s picturesque cottage (on the property of his rich, snobby parents’ estate) into a rental cottage in Kent that needs more than a little love to make it inhabitable, is a character that I really wanted to like. And I did, at first. However, as the story progressed, I found myself wanting to smack her and/or take her by the shoulders and shake her silly because she constantly jumped to conclusions about what her soon-to-be-ex-husband was up to and she was downright disagreeable to the affable Bruno. Elise touches upon the subject of post partum depression in Your Roots Are Showing, but never really delves into it with any substance, which is for me, the most disappointing aspect of this novel. I think that if she had focused on that issue, which is the excuse for why Lizzie lets herself go physically and ends up inadvertently sending a scathing email about how uninterested she is in her husband - meant for her sister - to James, spurring him to walk out on their marriage, I would have had a lot more empathy for Lizzie and would have liked her more. As it was, Lizzie, who couldn’t find a reason to love herself or understand why her husband had chosen her as a partner in the first place, was constantly making statements about herself and others that left me cringing. Lizzie finds herself binge-eating because of her depression and gaining weight (she was a ghastly size 12 at her heaviest, heaven forbid!), choosing to hide under sweat pants and old t-shirts with unwashed hair and portraying herself as a victim of an unreasonable husband who walked out on her. Through Tessa’s constant badgering to start running, Lizzie finally acquiesces and in no time finds herself addicted to the sport, her endorphins and the thrill she gets from seeing her body change. I can understand this reaction completely, but as a single, overweight, unnatural redhead, I found statements like the following rather insulting: “She had red hair. Real red hair, not the dyed variety. In most people, this was a misfortune. If somebody had come up to Lizzie and said, “James is going out with a redhead,” Lizzie would’ve been relieved. Even a little incredulous. Chuh, she’d have thought, couldn’t he do any better than that?” Or, at her friend Maria’s wedding: “But she wasn’t prepared to stand in the lineup of single women waiting to catch the bride’s bouquet. She wasn’t that much of a sport. Several voices, made loud and tactless by too much wine, urged her to join the spinsters…” I find the word "spinster" to be a harsh and outdated way of describing single women, don’t you? Lizzie assumes that if she changes herself physically, she will finally be worthy of love. I get that she is trying to find herself as a woman (and a writer of children’s verse) and not just as a wife and mother, but it’s the way in which she gets there that bothers me because I’m not sure Chidley is sending a positive message to other women through her character. Even though I feel this way, I did enjoy the story and the supporting characters, Ingrid the nosey neighbour, Sarah the babysitter, and James’ empathetic father, and it is certainly true that “sometimes the fairytale ending is just the beginning of the real story.” I can picture Your Roots Are Showing (a.k.a. The Wrong Sort of Wife in the UK) as a movie and wouldn’t have any trouble recommending it to other women who enjoy reading chick/mom lit. Elise Chidley is a respectable writer with potential for a bestseller and I genuinely look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Date published: 2009-04-10

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Luanne_Ollivier from
A New Chick Lit Author to Watch...It's always a thrill to discover a new author that you want to tell others about. Elise Chidley's debut fiction novel, Your Roots are Showing, is newly released. By mistake Lizzie sends an email to her husband James that was meant for her sister Janie. Unfortunately it details how fed up and frustrated she is with her marriage. It was just venting to her sister, but James takes it to heart and before she knows it, Lizzie is separated. She rents a rundown cottage in a small village with her three year old twins and then...Well what is next? She still loves James, but it seems he's ready to move on. Maybe it's time to love herself. Lizzie Indigo is a wonderful, warm, lovable character. The journey to reclaim her life and herself is by turns funny, sad and inspiring. Chidley has perfectly captured the trials and tribulations of life after children. Lizzie's world is filled out by an eclectic group of supporting characters (I'm quite taken with the meddling neighbour Ingrid) Chidley is very funny. I actually found myself laughing out loud as she recounts a tale involving the idea that wrapping one's self in saran wrap will drive your husband mad. Or the self tanning fiasco.... If you've read the Shopaholic/Bridget Jones books, you'll love this great feel good chick lit read. I'll be watching and waiting for Elise Chidley's next novel!

– More About This Product –

Your Roots Are Showing

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 0446543071

ISBN - 13: 9780446543071

From the Publisher

Lizzie Buckley has a life many women dream of - a gorgeous husband, a beautiful home and darling (when they're not fighting) three-year-old twins. But ever since the birth of her children, she's had a fantasy about locking herself in her bedroom for twenty-four hours with a good book and a box of chocolates.

Unfortunately, her husband James doesn't understand her feelings. And when Lizzie unburdens herself in a flaming email to her sister Janie, then hits send at the wrong moment and accidentally shoots it off to James instead, her fairytale life gets a big dose of reality. With the word "divorce" ringing in her ears, Lizzie finds herself moving out and embarking on a totally different life - working hard to reinvent herself as a runner, a gardener, and a writer of children's books.

But despite transforming her body, her neglected career, and her libido (courtesy of the local landscape gardener), Lizzie can't get over her soon-to-be ex. As Lizzie discovers, sometimes the fairytale ending is just the beginning of the real story.